Schizophrenia

   

(This image is from here!)

    These days when most people think of this mental disorder would probably jump to the movie "A Beautiful Mind", which was directed by Ron Howard.  The movie tells of a brilliant man who has hallucinations and delusions, which are two of the positive symptoms of Schizophrenia.

    Individuals that are diagnosed with this mental disorder can be be thought to have acute or chronic Schizophrenia. Acute Schizophrenia is mostly associated with positive symptoms, which I will list below, and is usually a one time thing.  An individual may have a psychotic break in their early twenties, and then show no other signs. With chronic Schizophrenia, the individual faces this disorder throughout their life and it is associated with negative symptoms.  

    The most common positive symptoms of schizophrenia are delusion, hallucination, and thought disorder, and others are uncommunicative and socially withdrawn. There are various types of delusions. Thought broadcasting is when the individual believes that someone else can read their mind.  Thought insertion is when they think that someone has put a specific thought into their mind.  Thought of control is when the individual believes that something that they do will have a consequence on the world. Delusion of persecution is when they think that someone is trying to kill them, which is obviously rational to a normal person.  Another rare delusion is one of grandeur, which is when the person thinks that they are Jesus, or anything related with religion.  The definition for a  delusion is a profoundly, invalid belief.  A hallucination is almost never visual; quite often it is a voice which can be linked to the delusion.  This hallucination does not come out of nowhere, but rather it seems as though it is a message and you are being told something.  In addition to the auditory sense of the hallucination, there is also a tactile sensation. An example of these are bugs on the skin, snakes in your stomach, and so on. Someone with schizophrenia can cycle in and out of episodes of delusion and hallucination. Thought Disorder seems to have a poetic feel to it. The individual is able to talk and speak, but what they say may not always make sense. It is as though they have a word salad and these thoughts seem to be 'off track'.
     Negative symptoms are things that are absent in this individual compared to a "normal" person. They are socially withdrawn, have a poverty of speech, flat affect, and they do not initiate goal-oriented behavior. If the schizophrenic person is aware of them self, then they would be able to tell that they are not connecting with the people that are around them.  These negative symptoms can be associated with loss of brain tissue and frontal lobe damage.  The positive symptoms are not associated with frontal lobe damage, but an increase in the neurotransmitter Dopamine.
    There is so much more that can be written about Schizophrenia, but I thought that I would give a somewhat brief introduction to this mental disorder. Hope that you enjoyed the Psych Knowledge that is within this post. Feel free to comment and stay tuned for even more great topics coming up. Thanks again for reading!!! Take care!

Wernicke's & Broca's Aphasia

        Wernicke's Aphasia is a language deficiency that is the cause of left-hemisphere damage.  The area of the brain where this occurs is within the left inferior cortex.  An individual with this deficiency does not have a problem with getting the words out, as in they don't stutter, but the words have a fluidity to them. The individual is able to say words, but these words don't have any meaning. These individuals understand the dimensions of the conversation, and even though the words lack any concrete meaning, the individual doesn't get frustrated with them-self.  Their words can be thought of as a "word salad". Also, they are unable to understand verbal speech or even sign language, which can be a comprehension issue. This type of Aphasia has a relatively normal or fluid production of words, but these words come out as jibberish.  Therefore these individuals have a difficultly of actually comprehending the language or the content (of the conversation).

 video example 1    video example 2

(I do not own any rights to these videos)

        Broca's Aphasia is a language deficiency that is also the cause of left-hemisphere damage, which is often thought of as a stroke.  Broca's Area is located in the left inferior frontal cortex.  People with this disorder struggle to get the words out and because of this, they often become frustrated with themselves.  They do not have any difficulties with comprehension, but they may often stutter to try to get the correct words or sounds out.  It is a motor problem with trying to get the words outs properly, which is linked to functions in the frontal lobe.  Even though people with this type of aphasia have a difficulty to produce words, the words still makes sense; there is comprehension of what is being asked.

                                             video example 1    video example 2              

                                        (I do not own any rights to these videos)

       Hope you enjoyed this introduction into two vary famous types of aphasia! This language dysfunction is often cause my damage to the brain and isn't just something that happens when you wake up one morning. It affects, according to the link below, "....80,000 individuals acquire aphasia each year from strokes. About one million people in the United States currently have aphasia." Thank you for visiting this page today, and hope you enjoyed today's psych knowledge!

information on aphasia

Oxytocin, the love hormone

     Oxytocin, as described by James W. Kalat, is a hormone that is released within the brain that is also a neurotransmitter which is important for sexual and parental behaviors.  One way to think of oxytocin is to think of it as a chemical in the brain that can provide a euphoric feeling when an individual is engaged in sexual activity, and it is also released when a mother gives birth to her child. So, therefore it is important for reproductive behavior. It "stimulates contractions" withing the uterus during labor and also causes stimulation in the mammary glands so that milk is released. Oxytocin is released during sexual pleasure at the time of orgasm. After orgasm is experienced, there is an obvious state of relaxation which is the result of oxytocin being released.
    There have been studies done on rats that showed an increased in exploring areas that they had not gone before, which could be potentially dangerous, after they had experienced orgasm-which reduced their anxiety of the area. Therefore if the release of oxytocin was blocked, then it would seem that oxytocin is responsible for calm and the lack of anxiety after orgasm occurs.
     The link below is from a TED talk by Paul Zak who talks about oxytocin, but not really the way that I have said above. He talks about oxytocin and it's relationship to moralality, rather than focusing on the familiar notion of "love". Also, my favorite part of the talk is when he mentions hugs and the effect that it can have on individuals. His 'doctorly' advice is to have eight hugs a day, which will increase your happiness. Please do watch the video, it's a great talk!!!

Paul Zak: Trust, morality...and oxytocin

    Thank you for reading this entry, and that some useful information was absorbed. Or at least that you enjoy this blog post. Thanks again, and 

Memory, oh sweet memory!

   
    There are various types of memories that psychologists refer to and they are episodic, explicit, implicit, semantic, short-term, long-term, sensory, declarative, and procedural memory.

    Usually memory can be simply divided into long-term and short-term memory, but sensory memory can be grouped along with these types of memories. Sensory memory lasts less than a second and is based on touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. Short-term memory, or working memory, lasts about a minute or so. Long-term memory is something that is stored within the brain throughout your life. With long-term memory that are various types of memories that help you throughout your life.

    Long-term memory can be broken into Declarative, or explicit, Memory and Procedural, or implicit Memory.  Declarative Memory is made of events and facts, things that are certain and can be recalled consciously. This type of memory is called Explicit because the information has been stored and it can be recalled explicitly. Declarative Memory can still be divided into episodic and semantic memory, which I will speak about a little later.  Procedural Memory is unconscious and it is consists of skills that are a "to do" task or motor functions.  A familiar is example is riding a bike; once you have learned the skills you don't have to think about what you need to do. This type of memory works with skills that have been mastered and are procedures. Procedural Memory can be called Implicit Memory when a past experience influences a certain task without consciously being aware of the past experiences.

    Episodic Memory and Semantic Memory are part of Declarative Memory. Episodic Memory is memory of specific events and experiences. It can be thought of as autobiographical memory because it is knowledge of your own life and the things that happened to you.Semantic Memory is more worldly and focuses on events, facts, and knowledge of the world that is around us. It is knowledge of a specific event or place without having experience of that specific place. 

     Those are the basics of the types of memories that psychologists have broken down.  Not only is there short-term and long-term memory, but also sensory memory. And within long-term memory, our memories can be broken down into unconscious and conscious memory. I think memory is an amazing thing because without it we would have a hard time functioning in our lives, especially with school. Hope you enjoyed the Psych Knowledge for today, and feel free to ask any questions, comments, or even suggestions for a topic. Thanks for reading!

 

 

Human Memory Information

(This information and picture are from the link provided above...)

I love you Basal Ganglia!

The basal ganglia is a set of forebrain structures within the lateral hypothalamus, which includes the caudate nucleus, putamen, and globus palidus. The connection or function that is most obvious is within the frontal areas of the cortex, which is responsible for planning planning things in a particular order, and certain aspects of memory and emotional expression. When the basal ganglia has deteriorated, which occurs in cases of Parkinson's or Huntington's disease, the most visible sign is impaired movement. However there are also signs of depression, deficiencies with memory, reasoning, as well as attention.

This image is from: http://neuralmodel.net/library/brain/basal_ganglia.htm

The basal ganglia also plays a role in language, especially those who are bilingual. How do individuals who speak two, or more, languages manage to keep each language separate? The answer is our dear friend basal ganglia.  The language receptors are stored in different areas of the brain, and for those who are efficient with language are able to juggle the different languages. Those individuals who learned two or more languages in early childhood had language areas in the temporal and frontal cortex become "thicker" than average. With those who are better at one language versus the other, the second or weaker language takes more of an effort and therefore activates the language areas stronger than the other language does. The shift from one language to another activates the frontal cortex, and basal ganglia.

Memory tasks that require a procedure, known as procedural memory(motor skills and habits), are linked with the basal ganglia. Another type of memory, declarative, is linked with the hippocampus, has to do with the ability to put things into words. The basal ganglia is also linked to sleep disorders, Schizophrenia, Parkinson's Disease, movement, and of  what is described above. There is more that can be said, but let's just say this is a condensed version of what information there is out there.

If you have any questions, or would like some more information, please feel free to ask or leave any comments/questions/concerns. Thank you for reading Psych Knowledge!

For more information on basal ganglia, click on the link below to listen to a podcast of what happens when the basal ganglia "short circuits"....(This podcast does not belong to me, and is the rights of Radiolab and WNYC.) Enjoy!

Damn It, Basal Ganglia!